The Oneira: Injection

Melodic Progressive Rock

4.0/5.0

Launched some ten years ago and led by Greek musician and composer Filippos Gougoumis, The Oneira features a multinational cast including Gianpaolo "Banjo" Begnoni on keyboards and Danilo "Sakko" Saccotelli on drums. After a long six year absence, the band returns with their third album, Injection which features Manuel Ruscigno as The Oneira's permanent lead vocalist.

The Oneira

As a melodic progressive rock band, The Oneira's songs are equally dense and intricate in composition thanks to spry guitar work, lush keyboard parts, rhythmic expansive drumming, and then adding Ruscigno's smooth and melodic vocal style lingering large over all arrangements.

To expand on this a little more, Gougoumis, in his guitar parts, balances rhythmic, harmonious riffs with soaring Gilmour-like solos, which are everywhere, ambitious, and a delight to enjoy. That is when he's not fending off or tag teaming with a Begnoni keyboard solo, with Paint Your Soul offering a fine example. Begnoni also adds to the melody of many songs by dropping in lilting piano line as within Behind The Sun or Paint Your Soul. For his part, Saccotelli is an impressive drummer who can offer subtle gentleness (Edipsos) or Peart-like percussion (Still Free To Choose) or be simply heavy and raging as within the latter half of Know That Feeling or the larger part of Make My Day.

Even with all this impressive musical activity, The Oneira never lose sight of the importance using song melody, vocal harmony, or a lyrical twist to make the musical complexity accessible to the listener. All said, The Oneira's Injection offers the listener a complex and intriguing, yet accessible and enjoyable, album of modern melodic progressive rock. Recommended.

The Bottom Line

The Oneira's Injection offers the listener a complex and intriguing, yet accessible and enjoyable, album of modern melodic progressive rock. Recommended.

Find A Review

Alphabetical Index

With a string of successful albums since regrouping in 2000 and a solid line up since 2016, House Of Lords, featuring original member and vocalist James Christian, returns with their twelfth studio album ... [ Read More ]